Cheap 7 gallon Azalea

[PA_Penjing]

Better than Gorilla glue, I guess.

An idiot friend of mine used wood glue once and it took him days to get it out of his hair. His liberty spikes were better than mine, but not worth the hassle.

 

[Fi5ch]

I went at this thing like it owed me money and the tallest branch is now 12" from the soil, cut down from ~30". The root ball is super dense and matted so I will leave that for later (fall?) and just slip pot it with some pumice for better drainage. I did use Elmers carpenter's glue to seal anything >1/8" and it seemed to work very well. Now I will leave it under on a roof covered deck in ~70% shade for a few weeks. Below are pics of the front I chose and the finished product; should I cut all the remaining foliage as well or does it help the azalea recover from the drastic pruning?

 

[Forsoothe!]

If you compare the net surface inches of leaf remaining verses the net mass of the rootball, there's no reason to put these critters in shade. Azalea likes partial sun sans noonday, so I'd go for lots of east or west or even south, sans midday. Just don't let it dry out.

 

[Fi5ch]

FWIW I used Elmer's carpenter glue to seal the cuts. After several weeks of rain storms it looks like its working well.

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Good luck with this guy!

Azalea root balls are basically a twisted mass of roots with bits of bark, peat, perlite and whatever trapped inside. Getting rid of the "country" soil is always a challenge. Some folks use water washing, some chopsticks and tweezers to clear all the old soil out. I use a lot of both for mine.

Not so sure I'd recommend a rootball in azalea media slip potted into pumice, but I'm interested in seeing the end of summer results and hoping for the best!

Cheers
DSD sends

 

[Fi5ch]

Update on my big box azalea. The hard chop and Elmer's wood glue cut seal didn't faze this guy and it has new buds everywhere. Now I feel that I should have cut back much harder, say 2" rather than the 12" I did. Should I cut it back hard again ~ 1 month after doing so the first time and in the middle of summer here in zone 7a, or let it recover until fall or next spring before doing so? TIA.

 

[Forsoothe!]

Since the roots were untouched, chop it back to where you want it now.

 

[Fi5ch]

Another update with another new look after cutting back to ~2". Fingers crossed!

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Gutsy move. It’s always hard cutting off years of growth on a tree. It doesn’t matter how old the tree is actually to me, it’s the cutting and hacking with the hope things will turn out alright after I’ve unleashed the “Gods of Chaos“ on a tree. Most of the time things do. Sometimes not.

Anyways your azalea should push, no problem, as long as you keep things in moderation. That includes sunlight for a week or more.

At this point, I am left wondering what the plan is from here on out, including your winter over plan. Could you please share this?

cheers
DSD sends

 

[Fi5ch]

Gutsy move. It’s always hard cutting off years of growth on a tree. It doesn’t matter how old the tree is actually to me, it’s the cutting and hacking with the hope things will turn out alright after I’ve unleashed the “Gods of Chaos“ on a tree. Most of the time things do. Sometimes not.

Anyways your azalea should push, no problem, as long as you keep things in moderation. That includes sunlight for a week or more.

At this point, I am left wondering what the plan is from here on out, including your winter over plan. Could you please share this?

cheers
DSD sends

My long term plan is to follow this from John Geanangel:

. The best feature is the ~3" trunk with rough bark at my chosen front (marked by the rusty nail), and the chop to 2" will hopefully concentrate vigorous growth into new thin branching. I hope to get ramification down low over the next few years and have a more 'believable' package than would have existed with branching starting from 12" tall thick limbs. Totally noob here so definitely open to other thoughts/critiques, but for a $20 plant I felt comfortable having a whack at it.

 

[just.wing.it]

Looks like a good start. Azaleas are beast!

 

[Deep Sea Diver]

Thanks for the insight. Looking forward to seeing future posts on this tree. Practice makes better!
cheers
DSD sends

 

[discusmike]

You need wood glue, not the white school glue

 

[Fi5ch]

You need wood glue, not the white school glue

Agreed, I used Elmer's Carpenter's glue